And All this Time I Thought it Was a Moniker

CHAD was bishop of Lichfield from 669  until his death in 672. So although  closely associated with Lichfield,  he was bishop here for only the  last three years of his life.

A time of conflict The England of Chad’s time was a place of religious conflict: conflict between Christianity and the pagan religions of the Anglo-Saxons, and conflict within Christianity between the Roman church and the followers of the Celtic Christian tradition. The Anglo-Saxons had begun settling in Britain in the early fifth century as the Roman Empire fell apart, pushing the Britons (Celts) into Wales and the South-West. By the end of the century, the warring tribal nations had formed into seven main kingdoms. Lichfield, at this time, was a small settlement in the kingdom of Mercia. In 563, Columba, a monk in the Celtic tradition, founded a monastery on Iona in the Inner Hebrides and in 597 the Roman-trained Augustine arrived in Kent. Britain was therefore re-converted to Christianity from the north by the Celtic church and from the south by the Roman church. The disagreements between the two branches included the shape of a monk’s tonsure and the method of calculating the date of Easter, but went much deeper. In 602, Augustine summoned the British bishops and tried to persuade them to conform to Roman customs, but they refused, leading to a complete breach between the two sides. This, then, was the England into which Chad was born. Monk of Lindisfarne Nearly everything we know about Chad comes from Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, written in 731. Chad was born in Northumbria, probably in the 620s. While still a boy he became a student of Aidan at the Celtic monastery on Lindisfarne and later went as a monk to Ireland, where he was priested, for further study. It is known that one of Chad’s four brothers, Cedd, came to Mercia in 653 when the province of the Middle Angles converted to Christianity. It is possible that Chad worked alongside his brother, instructing and baptising the people. In 664, a synod was held at Whitby to decide which method for calculating the date of Easter was correct. After listening to the argument between the two sides, King Oswy declared the Roman tradition the truer. Although the majority of Celtic clerics accepted Oswy’s decision, some refused to conform and this was to later directly affect Chad. Abbot of Lastingham From Mercia, Chad’s brother Cedd had gone to work first with the East Saxons before going north to Lastingham (in modern-day Yorkshire) where he had been given land for a monastery. On Cedd’s death from plague in 664, Chad succeeded his brother as Abbot of Lastingham. The following year, Wilfrid, Abbot of Ripon, was sent to France to be consecrated as bishop of the Northumbrians. Wilfrid, however, lingered in France and Chad was summoned from Lastingham to be consecrated in his place. Bishop Wini of the West Saxons was the only bishop of the Roman tradition left in England, but, as three bishops were required for a consecration, two others still following the British traditions assisted. In 669, Theodore of Tarsus became Archbishop of Canterbury and immediately set about reforming the English church. On discovering two bishops in Northumbria, he declared Chad’s consecration invalid because of the participation of the two British bishops. Chad’s reply revealed his deep humility: “If you know I have not duly received episcopal ordination, I willingly resign the office, for I never thought myself worthy of it; but, though unworthy, in obedience submitted to undertake it.” Moved by this reply, Theodore completed Chad’s consecration according to Roman rites. However, Wilfrid remained as Bishop of York and so Chad returned to Lastingham. Bishop of Lichfield This state of affairs did not last long, as later in the same year King Wulfhere of Mercia requested a bishop and Theodore sent Chad. It is likely that Chad’s church, dedicated to St. Mary, was somewhere on the site of the present cathedral and that the church here at Stowe was the site of the ‘house near the church, where he used to retire privately with seven or eight brethren in order to pray or study whenever his work and preaching permitted’. Although there had been previous bishops working in Mercia, it was with Chad that the see was fixed at Lichfield and so Chad can be correctly described as the first Bishop of Lichfield. As Bishop of Lichfield, Chad carried out his missionary and pastoral work with zeal. The kingdom of Mercia was huge, and Chad spent much of his time travelling. In accordance with the Celtic tradition in which he had been brought up, he at first insisted on making all journeys on foot, following the example of the apostles. However, Theodore insisted that Chad used a horse for long journeys. Chad, unwilling to do anything that he felt would put him above the common man, refused, but Theodore, Bede tells us, lifted Chad bodily onto the horse. Chad’s passing After two and a half years at Lichfield, there came a time of plague which ‘freed many members of the reverend bishop’s church from the burden of the flesh’. One day, a certain monk named Owini was working alone in the fields near Chad’s house when he heard the sound of singing apparently descending from the sky to the oratory where Chad was praying. Owini listened with rapt attention. The voices could be heard for about half an hour before returning heavenwards. Chad then summoned his monks and, after urging them to live good Christian lives and to continue in keeping the rules of monastic discipline, announced that he was soon to die. When the other brothers had gone away, Owini returned to Chad and begged to know what the singing had been that he had heard. Chad replied that he had been visited by angelic spirits summoning him to heaven and that these spirits would return in seven days and take him with them. He then commanded Owini to tell nobody of this until after his death. Chad was quickly taken ill and on the seventh day (2nd March, 672), ‘his holy soul was released from the prison-house of the body and, one may rightly believe, was taken by the angels to the joys of heaven’.